Monthly Archives: December 2015

In a six-to-one vote on Dec. 17, New Orleans City Council decided to relocate four Confederate, reconstruction-era monuments. The four “nuisance” monuments—commemorating Robert E. Lee (Lee Circle), Jefferson Davis (Jeff Davis Parkway), P.G.T. Beauregard (outside City Park), and The Battle … Continue reading →

In the city of New Orleans, books are the one item a person can give away or even sell on public property without obtaining permission, or purchasing any sort of permit. In 2001, then newly transplanted New York bookseller, Joshua Wexler, … Continue reading →

When you arrive at Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, you’re given an enslaved person’s image and story to wear for the day. Mine was Ann Hawthorne, who was 85 years old when the Library of Congress’s Federal Writer’s Project recorded … Continue reading →

Rhythm and Blues singer Irma Thomas is so authentic that only she could play herself in the theatre adaptation of her life, Simply Irma. Well, for most of the time. “Actually, of the 24 song of hers in the play, … Continue reading →

The neglected, broken roads around Valence Cemetery in New Orleans will shake your car to death. The tombs are in similar disrepair. As he guides me through the latest vandalism inflicted upon Valence, Adam Stevenson, President of the Save Our … Continue reading →

Martin Arceneaux’s trademark long, wavy brown hair blows in the perfect breeze off Lake Pontchartrain as we sit at a table on a jetty sticking out into the water—tonight’s backstage area. He has just performed a 20-minute set spinning funk … Continue reading →

Krampus Gras: http://www.neworleans.me/journal/detail/1101/Krampus-Gras-is-Coming-to-Town Santa’s Quarters: http://www.neworleans.me/journal/detail/1117/The-Store-Where-Its-Always-The-Most-Wonderful-Time-of-the-Year Or check out this video tour of the amazing Santa’s Quarters shop: